Monday, May 28, 2007

You're Not in Charge Here


“Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”(Rom.6:18)

Freedom from one automatically makes us a servant to the other. There is no other alternative. “No one tells me what to do,” you may say; but the truth is, someone else is always pulling the strings. “I gotta’ be me,” the old popular song says, but which me? The one who has chosen “sin unto death,” or the one who opts for “obedience unto righteousness” (v.16)? The most strong-willed among us are merely fulfilling the wishes of another with greater vehemence. We’re never doing our own thing.

When we defy the commandments of God it’s only because we have surrendered the reigns of our lives to the devil, allowed sin to reign in our mortal bodies and, therefore, have become obedient to its lusts (v.12). On the other hand, when we are pleasing the Father, it is because we have been made “free from sin, and become servants of God” (v.22). Our “members” (bodies), are simply instruments, either of righteousness or unrighteousness (v.13). We are always in the hands of another, accomplishing either the will of God or the designs of the devil.

Each of us is faced with the same choice Joshua gave the children of Israel: “[C]hoose you this day whom ye will serve…” (Josh.24:15). Make no mistake; we are all somebody’s servant; and I’d just as soon have the One who holds the keys of life and death telling me what to do. How about you?

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